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Holy Kingdom of East Francia
The Holy Kingdom of East Francia (Franconian: Heīlīgv́s Regnv́m Orīsten Frankonv́m German: Heiliges Königreich Ostfranken) is a Germanic nation state located along the Rhine river that was formally founded in 1939 after the second Hussar warlord of the German Cavalry Guard, Hans Georg-Viktor von Mackensen, officially proclaimed and signed the First East Franconian Royal Decree. The nation's modern borders were formed with the Proclamation of Eternal Peace in the Fatherland in 1941. In a short time, the Kingdom had annexed the former territories of the Sanctum Byzantium Imperium and formed the protectorates of the Imperial Ecclesiocracy of Anatolia and the Imperial Ecclesiocracy of Syria Palaestina. The second and current Holy King is Gaius von Mackensen, who rules jointly with the Quattuorvirātus Consultors, a group of four who assist the Holy King with rule over the nation. History Rule of the First Holy King The 'Rule of the First Holy King of East Francia' refers to the rule of the first head of state of the nation, Hans Georg von Mackensen. As previously mentioned, H.G. Mackensen officially founded the Holy Kingdom of East Francia and cemented the rule of the House of von Mackensen over the Holy Carolingian Throne, the throne of the monarch of East Francia. Foundation The kingdom was officially founded with the First East Franconian Royal Decree on March 2, 1939. The document officially ended the warlord rule of the German Cavalry Guard and established the rule of East Francia with the first Holy King and 'Defender of the Catholic Faith' being Hans Georg-Viktor von Mackensen. The document was drafted and signed in Stuttgart, specifically in the Old Castle, which would later be renovated and turned into the imperial legislature and renamed the Heiliges Reichstag. Stuttgart was subsequently made the capital of the Kingdom. The document reads as such: The raven no longer flies over the mountain. ''(This line being a reference to an old South German folk legend that states when ravens no longer fly over the Alps, Barbarossa would rise from the dead.) ''Instead, it has descended on Europe, and seeks to devour her. Be it the red banner of socialism it wields, or the black flag of fascism, the raven comes. It is in these turbulent times that we must look to the past for guidance. And I, Hans Georg-Viktor von Mackensen, have at last found the inspiration that we need to secure our existence and our traditions. I have created a title of old once more, the same that united our people for nearly a millennia. Though this new nation will not wear the facade of a Roman empire, but instead it will proudly display the colors of those who forged it. I no longer write to you as Hans Georg von Mackensen. I write to you now as Hans I, by the Grace of God, Defender of the Catholic Faith, King of Germany, France, and Bohemia. Archduke of Austria and Switzerland, Grand Duke of Oldenburg, Holstein, and Hanover. I write to you now not as a warlord, a petty pseudo-noble who claims hegemony through merely his force of arms, but now as the King of Germany. The heir not only to my father, but to the Carolingian throne, that which has sat undisturbed for a thousand years, I now claim. '' ''To my French and German brothers and sisters, I urge you reconsider your beliefs. You face now a new France and Germany, one that has been broken in the Great War, but now rises from the ashes like a phoenix of legend. Squabbling warlords do not concern me, nor do unwashed revolutionaries who believe their ideals higher than any king, or God himself. '' ''Come their floods, for my house is built upon a pillar of stone, whilst theirs rests on nothing but the sand of the earth. Faithfully, H.RM Hans Georg-Viktor von Mackensen Shortly after the ratification of the document and proclamation of East Francia, the Weimar Republic declared war on the nation. Rhenish Campaign Main article: Rhenish Campaign The campaign, initiated by East Franconian regulars and civilian militia, officially started with the Street Skirmish of Frankfurt. The East Franconians were quickly pushed to the outskirts of the city, were they continued engaging with police, Freikorps, and Reichswehr. Multiple other battles were fought in the Rhineland region, with a few skirmishes being fought in and around Frankfurt. The city itself would remain a contested area throughout the whole campaign. The Rhenish Campaign continued into 1941 until the ratification of the Proclamation of Eternal Peace in the Fatherland. During this time, the mostly unorganized army of the East Franconians was reformed into the Holy Imperial Army of the Franks from the ranks of the unmounted men-at-arms of the German Cavalry Guard. Papal Legitimization Shortly after the beginning of the Rhenish Campaign, H.G. Mackensen addressed Pope Pius XII in a letter requesting legitimacy. The letter reads as such: To His Holiness, Pope Pius XII, Vicar of Christ and Bishop of Rome. I write to you not as a plea for legitimacy, nor for any such wordly reasons. Instead, I wish to make my rule right in the eyes of God. For as with many things of this world, my path to rule is soaked in the blood of good men. Be they my own, or those who stood before them, it matters not. For the shedding of any blood is a tragedy in it’s own, not just in the eyes of men but indeed in the eyes of God most high. '' ''It is for the reason I ask not only for you to hear my repentance, but I also ask for you to legitimize my rule in the eyes of God, as is your right as Vicar of Christ. I humbly ask you, Your Holiness, to crown me King of the Franks, as your ancient predecessors did for Charlemagne, so too do I ask of you. '' ''Germania is once again a land of barbarism, as it was destined to become after the dreaded heresy of Martin Luther. I seek to reestablish Catholic order to this once-blessed land, reunited once more, by the Grace of God. '' ''I eagerly await your reply, S.M Hans Georg-Viktor von Mackensen Two days following the arrival of the letter, Pope Pius XII responded with an official invitation for H.G. Mackensen to come to the Holy See where he was officially crowned by the Pope, just as Charlemagne had been hundreds of years ago. After the coronation, the Rhenish Campaign continued up until the ratification of the Proclamation of Eternal Peace in the Fatherland. During the Papal Legitimisation period, the Holy Carolingian Throne was established in Stuttgart. Proclamation of Eternal Peace in the Fatherland The Proclamation of Eternal Peace in the Fatherland, ratified on March 17, 1941 officially ended the Rhenish Campaign and legitimised the kingdom in the eyes of the international community. The borders of the kingdom were also adjusted accordingly to fit with religious demographics and for simplicity's sake, as the borders pre-proclamation were rather messy. The proclamation reads as such: I, S.M Hans Georg-Viktor von Mackensen, first Holy King of the Kingdom of East Francia and the Gauls. Crowned by the holy Vicar of Christ, Pope Pius XII as King of Germans, now proclaim to the German people, that there shall no longer be wars between her sons on her soil. With this proclamation, I announce that the Weimar Republic, our German brothers to the north, have come into full alliance with us. From henceforth we shall have no hostile actions towards them, and neither shall they towards us. With this proclamation, however, has come a shift in borders. Though we no longer control Munich, we now share a border with Austria and Switzerland through Lower Bavaria. We have also reunited with our Catholic brothers in the Southern Rhineland - which shall now be known as Westphalia. The Weimar Republic shall also take our possessions in the North Rhineland, to supplement their Protestant majority. With this proclamation, there shall be no hostilities between German brothers, and, God-willing, there shall be no more German blood shed unnecessarily on it’s soil. God bless the Two Germanies. God bless the Fatherland. End of the Reign of the First Holy King 4 days after the end of the Rhenish Campaign and the ratification of the Proclamation of Eternal Peace in the Fatherland, H.G. Mackensen committed suicide by jumping off of a tower of a Cathedral. His suicide note reads as such: On the 21st of March, 1941 in the Year of Our Lord, I have died. This craven act I have taken out of my own self pity. I’ve been unable to deal with life; the stresses of running a nation, the stigmatism of warlordism. It’s enough to drive a man to sin; thus my grave sin of suicide. I therefore found it fitting to jump off of the tower of the Cathedral. I always found most comfort there, and it allowed me a final chance to repent my sin, and pray that God would forgive me my trespass of suicide. I fear He will not. Even so, I embrace the fires of Hell if I must; I will live through the torment with the hope that Christ our Lord will see it fit to forgive me. '' ''I leave, hereby, all titles and possessions to my heir presumptive; Gaius Matthias von Mackensen. Though I originally intended to leave my possessions to the Weimar Republic, I had a change of heart following a conversation with my priest. Father Constantine was a great comfort to me, and I wish him not to feel ill towards me, or believe that my suicide was somehow his fault. I also wish for my family not to mourn. I don’t need it, I don’t require it, and I don’t think you would even want to. Formerly yours, Hans von Mackensen. Resting now with Christ. As mentioned in his note, he left the Holy Kingdom to his son Gaius von Mackensen, who would go on to introduce reforms that would shape the Holy Kingdom into a functioning nation. Rule of the Second Holy King The rule of the second Holy King of East Francia, Gaius Matthias von Mackensen, was marked by reform and imperial doctrine. Holy Burial of the First Holy King The first act of the second Holy King was to give a proper burial to his father. First, he ordered his servants to cut off the head of his father's corpse and flay the skin from it. He then subsequently demanded that the Holy Order of Machinists which had recently established themselves in the Stuttgart Forge laminate the skull in melted gold, fasten the personal kolpack of H.M. Mackensen onto the skull and then place it atop the Holy Carolingian Throne. The body then underwent a long embalming period of a week and was then placed in a small crypt that had been built under the Heiliges Reichstag. Byzantium and the Tenth Crusade Gaius, upon becoming the second Holy King, immediately proclaimed his support for the Tenth Crusade, which had already started on March the 12th of the same year, and sent volunteers to assist in the goal of the crusade, that being "the establishment of a Catholic state in Constantinople and Jerusalem, to repulse the Jihadist hordes back to the badlands of the Middle East, and the eradication of world communism." After the Sanctum Byzantium Imperium and the Holy Austrian Imperium were established, East Franconian volunteers were sent into the region to help fight the Greeks and Turks in Byzantium and into Austria to help fully prop up the new radical Catholic government and stomp out communist resistance. Upon the fall of Byzantium, East Francia was given the land by the Patriarch Vatius Xenakis. May Hostilities On May 4th, East Francia and its Anatolian puppet state mobilized against France and annexed the French colony in Syria and established the Imperial Ecclesiocracy of Syria Palaestina. As well as this, East Franconian troops also took parts of Alsace-Lorraine and the Maginot Line, forcing both sides to dig in for a border conflict that is still ongoing. Recent Times Recently, after pleas for annexation from the Holy Austrian Imperium due to an inability to properly deal with the various insurrections in the nation were answered by East Francia, which annexed the nation on June 1st and quickly sent in special squads of mutated soldiers, the Creature Auxiliaries (Kreaturae Auxilia) to quell insurrection from the Salzburger Maoist Union, the Agrarian Socialist Society of Austria, and various other Austrian socialist rebel organizations. On July 16th, the Holy King proclaimed the creation of a Catholic paramilitary known as the Landamservcht in East Franconian German to assist in the spread of Catholicism to other nations in Europe. He named Colonel Friedrich-Otto Maximilian of the East Franconian Imperial Army to lead the paramilitary battalions as its Lord-General. The citizen militias that had served with the kingdom in the Rhenish Campaign were absorbed into the Landamserv́cht battalions. After the founding of the Landamservcht, the Quattuorvirātus Consultors was founded by the Holy King to assist in his rule. Culture The majority of people in East Francia, especially those living in more rural areas, speak German, while soldiers and members of the aristocracy and nobility speak East Franconian German, a mash of Latin and German with the addition of new characters within the normal alphabet as well as a secondary alphabet. Religion Religion, specifically Roman Catholicism, plays an important role in the culture of the East Franconians. There is a radical devotion to the Catholic Church, the Pope, and the Holy King of the Holy Carolingian Throne that is omnipresent in day to day life in both urban and rural areas. Militarism Youths from ages 17 to 24, if seen fit to serve, are drafted into the Imperial Army of the Franks for a minimum period of 6 years. After such a time, they can either return home or remain in the army. Fresh conscripts are conditioned upon arrival to a training camp that the willingness to serve within the army is a great and pious act in service to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity.